If fuel economy is your primary goal, I would just look at a hybrid. Switching cars to get 50% improvement in fuel economy may not make financial sense, but at least a 100% improvement could make the math work.

A Prius C would give you the best numbers, mileage and price wise, if your main goal is to minimize fuel costs. A C-Max or Fusion hybrid would be much better driving cars, but they also cost a bit more, so it depends on what you want.

If fuel economy is your primary goal, I would just look at a hybrid. Switching cars to get 50% improvement in fuel economy may not make financial sense, but at least a 100% improvement could make the math work.

A Prius C would give you the best numbers, mileage and price wise, if your main goal is to minimize fuel costs. A C-Max or Fusion hybrid would be much better driving cars, but they also cost a bit more, so it depends on what you want.

Trouble is, trading in a perfectly usable car for a new hybrid just to get better fuel economy is usually folly. At 1,000 miles a month and $3.50 per gallon, you're saving only $87.50 a month in gas by doubling your fuel economy from 20mpg to 40mpg. If your increase in payments (and decrease in expected maintenance / repairs) by buying the new hybrid is significantly less than $87.50 a month then it may make sense. But with hybrid prices where they are, that seems unlikely. Especially if you're currently driving a paid off vehicle, or will be paid off within the next year or two.

But then there are other considerations like new car itch, enjoyment factor, future repairs (higher on the older car), etc.

When trying to decide whether to refinance or trade in my wife's '08 Taurus in order to drastically reduce the $420 a month payment, I did this quick tradeoff calc at the end of 6 years. It looked at refinancing the Taurus for another 36 mos. to reduce the payments or trade it in on the Focus. Factoring in gas savings and the Taurus needing new tires soon, it was basically break even. But that's assuming the Taurus needed no major out of pocket repairs over the next 6 years which was unlikely. Also required a swag on book value of each car at the end of 6 years. Given those two unknowns, I may very well have been better off keeping the Taurus. But then there's the intangible driving enjoyment factor....

But basically if you're looking to reduce the pain to your pocket book, don't just look at gas savings. Look at the big picture!

Trouble is, trading in a perfectly usable car for a new hybrid just to get better fuel economy is usually folly. At 1,000 miles a month and $3.50 per gallon, you're saving only $87.50 a month in gas by doubling your fuel economy from 20mpg to 40mpg. If your increase in payments (and decrease in expected maintenance / repairs) by buying the new hybrid is significantly less than $87.50 a month then it may make sense. But with hybrid prices where they are, that seems unlikely. Especially if you're currently driving a paid off vehicle, or will be paid off within the next year or two.

He said 2500 miles a month so that would be $262.50 a month for doubling fuel economy. Also with as much driving as he is doing, his current one could easily be in the 100k-150k mark already and repair costs could start creeping in.

He said 2500 miles a month so that would be $262.50 a month for doubling fuel economy. Also with as much driving as he is doing, his current one could easily be in the 100k-150k mark already and repair costs could start creeping in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lewisra

$218.75. Unless gas just went up to $4.20 a gallon.

I guess we're all having trouble with math! I missed the 2500 miles a month, yeah $219 could potentially make a hybrid worth it, BUT it depends on how much he owes on his Fusion among other things. All I'm sayin' is, dont' forget about the big picture!

I just ran a little test, I reset my mpg meter when I got up to 55, left it on cruise for the trip home and got 44.8 mpg. When I did the same thing at 65 mph I got 34.7 mpg. Granted, this is a little test and isn't a big enough set of data to be conclusive, but the gist is the same. If you want better mpg drive slower, accelerate slower, coast up to red lights and stop signs.

I had an 03 Sport Trac that I was getting 16 mpg with when I traded it for the Focus. I'm averaging about 32 mpg with the focus, because I don't normally drive 55 on the highway :) With that better gas mileage I'm saving about $125 a month in gas, and since the Sport Trac needed a lot of work I also saved about $3,500 in maintenance over the next two years. So I pretty much drive the Focus for free for two years, and I've already sold enough extra parts I had to make up another payment or two.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the Ford Focus Forum, Ford Focus ST Forum, Ford Focus RS Forum forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

What I Drive

Year, color, and model of your car. Example: 2003 Pitch Black ZX3

Name

Your real name.

City

State

Country

Insurance

Please select your insurance company (Optional)

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.